


Hurt

by lovekernel



Category: Sweet/Vicious (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Injury, Originally Posted on Tumblr, what happened to jules is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 16:29:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11188980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovekernel/pseuds/lovekernel
Summary: Ophelia does a solo mission and gets hurt. Jules freaks out.





	Hurt

Jules settled back against her headboard and re-read the paragraph she had just written on the laptop between her crossed legs. The essay was due the next day and she had five hundred words left to write.

A year ago, that would have been more than enough time for Jules to finish.  
A year ago, Jules made essay plans and worked out schedules in order to get them done with a few days to spare.  
But then Jules was raped, and she lost all the focus, that she used to have for being a good student and keeping her grades high enough to maintain her scholarship, to being exhausted after being kept up by her nightmares, or just trying to get through the days without breaking down.

Now, even though Jules was slowly getting better and her grades were coming up, she lacked motivation for schoolwork and every task took so much longer to finish. Whenever Jules was faced with an essay to write or exam to study for she just thought about how little any of it mattered, her work with Ophelia as a vigilante always seemed to matter more than anything and she would always prefer to be helping people than studying.  
In the end Jules always reminded herself, or Ophelia told her, that she could only help stop injustices at Darlington if she was still a student there.

If she hadn’t met Ophelia, Jules realised once, she probably would have dropped out months ago. There was no way that she could have kept up the facade of being okay for much longer and even if she did, she would have lost her scholarship and had to go home with her past mental state and without Ophelia’s help studying. Besides all that, without Ophelia that night in the garage with Carter, she’d probably be dead anyway.

Jules was deliberating whether or not she needed a footnote for a point she made when her phone rang. She smiled when she saw Ophelia’s name on the screen.

“Hey, O,” Jules answered.

“What’s up, Thomas? How’s that essay going? You finished yet?”

Jules could almost hear the smile in Ophelia’s voice.

“Nope, not yet. Still got a ways to go,” replied Jules, glancing down at her word count.

“Do you wanna bring it over here? Maybe I can help,” said Ophelia.

“Oh yeah? Know anything about nineteenth century literature?”

“I watched Pride and Prejudice with you that one time…”

Jules rolled her eyes. She could hear the faint noise of popcorn popping in the background. “How bored are you?”

“Since you asked, on a scale of one to ten I’m an eleven point two but that is not the point!The point is that I haven’t seen you in ages,” she whined quietly. Jules could picture her pout.

“It’s been three days, Ophelia.”

“To be fair, Jules, that is a long time for us.”

“Can’t argue with that, I sure do see a lot of you.”

“I’m getting withdrawal symptoms. I can’t even eat.”

“You’re eating right now.”

The other end was silent for a moment. “How did you know?”

“I have to get back to work, O.”

“Okay, okay! But before you go I got a little something to motivate you.”

“Hmm?”

“Jason Kelly. Reported for assault three times by three different students. Faced zero punishment.”

“Three times? How is he still in school?”

"Parents are big donors. Got every allegation swept under that ever-growing rug.” Ophelia paused. “Also he’s captain of the debating team, the same debating team that got all the way to nationals this year. They’d probably lose their place if their captain was outed as a rapist.”

“Gosh, okay. Let’s get on that as soon as possible. Um, I’ll come over tomorrow, as soon as I’ve handed this in.”

“Yes! Okay I’ll see you then! Or…if you finish quickly we can get going on this tonight? I’m already tracking his phone.”

Jules sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Still got my conclusion to write and I gotta edit so I doubt I’ll be over tonight. Just gather some info on him.”

“Ugh. Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Ophelia.” Jules put her phone down on her bedside table and got back into her essay.

Meanwhile, Ophelia sat spinning slowly in her computer chair, staring at the ceiling. She threw a piece of popcorn in the air and caught it in her mouth. Usually if Jules was busy, with stuff she did without Ophelia, like class and Zeta activities, she hung out with Harris, and if Harris was busy Ophelia would do things with Jules. But right now Jules was working on a paper and Harris was out with Fiona and Ophelia was alone and bored.

She spun back towards the computer. The sexual assault reports for Jason Kelly were still up on her screen. Anger bubbled up inside her as she read the accounts. They were brutal attacks. Anyone who read them should want the attacker punished, expelled, behind bars. And yet, he still walks free, probably completely oblivious to the damage he’s done to the people he assaulted.

Ophelia glared at the screen before turning away and sighing deeply. Her eyes rested on the bag she kept her vigilante clothes in. She turned back to the screen and clicked onto the window where she was tracking Jason’s movements. She already had his class schedule and marked a number of places he frequented on the map. None of that stuff ever took her very long. She had a pretty good idea of where he was and what he was doing at any given moment. At that moment he was at the pizza place. Ophelia checked his recent texts.

“Oh God.” She grimaced. She saw some flirty messages between him and a girl called Katie, making plans to meet up that night. He was on a date. Knowing what she knew about Jason, Ophelia knew that she had an obligation to make sure that Katie made it home safe.

Ophelia got up and threw on a jacket. She looked around for her keys and saw her bag again. She probably wouldn’t need her black clothes, she just had to look out for Katie. If anything happened she could intervene as a kindly stranger, rather than a violent vigilante. Ophelia paused, standing in the middle of the apartment, before grabbing the bag from the floor and turning to the door. She wondered for a moment about texting Jules to let her know what she was doing but thought better of it. She didn’t want to distract her, it was already hard enough for Jules to finish her work without worrying about what Ophelia was up to.  
When Ophelia reached the bottom of the stairs to her apartment, she saw Jason and a girl she assumed to be Katie leaving the restaurant across the street. Jason was a tall, broad man and Katie was tiny in comparison. Jason was laughing loudly while Katie smiled and watched the ground as they walked. Ophelia waited for them to get half-way down the street before following them.

Apparently a new target was enough motivation for Jules to finish her paper within the hour. She still had to read through it and edit out any mistakes but it was only 9pm.

Jules tapped the pads of her fingers on the edge of her keyboard and looked around her room. Her eyes rested on a photo of herself and Ophelia that Fiona snapped when they were having dinner with her and Harris at the pizza place. Jules’s profile was smiling with her hands under her chin, looking at Ophelia who’s head was thrown back in a laugh while she balanced a slice of pizza on her palm. Ophelia’s hair flew back from her face and the strands lit up green and blue against the warm background of the restaurant. Fiona sent Jules the photo and told her to put it on Instagram, but Jules loved it so much that she framed it and put it on her desk instead.

Jules closed her laptop and got up from the bed. She stretched and looked over at the photo again. Maybe Ophelia could proof-read her essay. She may not have any knowledge of nineteenth century literature but she could spot a typo from a mile away. And Jules really did miss the usual presence of her partner in crime. Jules put a jacket on, shoved her laptop into her backpack and headed out.

As Jules passed Vinylton, she peered in to see if Ophelia was there, but it was closed up for the night and the lights were off.  
Jules tried the door to Ophelia’s apartment to find it locked. She knocked and waited a few seconds before putting her backpack down and rummaging through it for her keys. She’s probably just in the bathroom, Jules thought, as she let herself in.

“Ophelia?” Jules called, rounding the corner of the record shelves and seeing the door to the bathroom wide open. She gazed around the apartment and spotted a half eaten bag of popcorn lying abandoned on Ophelia’s desk. Maybe she went out to get food, Jules thought, and sat down on the couch. She sent a text, “At yours. Where are you?”

As Jules pulled out her laptop she was struck with a sense that something was not right.

Nothing she saw had really alerted her that something was wrong, but Jules couldn’t shake the feeling of unease, and it only grew as minutes went by without a reply from Ophelia.

Ten minutes after Jules texted, her phone lit up: “Please don’t be mad.”

Panicked, Jules stood up and called Ophelia, but a few seconds after she put the phone to her ear, Jules heard Ophelia’s phone ring outside the door. She rushed over and opened the door to find Ophelia fumbling between her keys and her phone.

Slowly, Ophelia looked up with a small smile, “Hey, Jules.”

“Where were you?” said Jules, her voice getting louder with each word. “What did you do?”

“Everything’s okay, Jules . I just…well I was tracking Jason, the guy I told you about, on the computer,” Ophelia came in and shut the door. “And I, I uh…found out he was on a date and I just couldn’t sit here knowing that that girl could be in danger so I followed them. Just to make sure she got home safe!” Jules stared at Ophelia, breathing deeply through her nose and trying to stay calm as she continued. “I didn’t plan on doing anything like…like what happened.”

“What happened?” Jules crossed her arms.

“Katie, the date, she tried to leave him to go home. He kept insisting that she come back to his place, she refused and tried to walk away, he grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let go…he was holding her against the wall and touching her and so I jumped in and pulled him off of her. Katie got away but I was…seeing red, you know? I kept thinking about what he did to other girls before and I couldn’t let him get away with it.” Ophelia dropped her bag to the floor and threw her phone and keys onto the couch.

Jules glanced down at Ophelia’s body and her eyes widened as she noticed a large, rusty stain on the dark fabric around Ophelia’s abdomen.

“Is that blood? God, Ophelia what did you do?!” Jules’s heart raced again. “Wait, were you wearing your suit? Your mask? Did he see you?”

“I was! I was, don’t freak out. This isn’t his blood.”

A sick feeling made it’s way from Jules’s stomach up to her chest as she realised what that meant.

“Oh my god, Ophelia,” Jules breathed, fixated on the dark shape over Ophelia’s stomach.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. It’s just a scratch. He had a pen knife on him. I knocked it out of his hand pretty early on. Didn’t even feel this,” Ophelia gestured to her torso, “until I was a few blocks away.”

Jules looked up to the ceiling and back at Ophelia again. She clapped a hand to her forehead, exasperated. “Come on, lie down,” Jules led Ophelia over to the bed, “I want to see how bad this is.”  
“Jules, it’s fine, really,” said Ophelia, wincing slightly as she sat down and lay back on the bed. Jules shook her head as she turned to get their first aid kit.

Sitting on the bed next to Ophelia, Jules asked, “What happened to Jason?”

“He was conscious when I left, he was also crying, though. Think I might have broken one of his ribs. It’s the least he deserves,” said Ophelia, staring at the ceiling blankly.

“Why didn’t you call me?” asked Jules, gently lifting Ophelia’s shirt.

“There wasn’t really time, I had to act fast…”

Jules looked over at Ophelia. "Not then! When you saw he was on a date, why didn’t you call me then?”

“Didn’t wanna distract you from your paper.”

Jules slapped Ophelia’s arm lightly. “Next time. Distract me.”

Jules continued to carefully and slowly peel away Ophelia’s shirt from the dried blood around her wound, trying not to hurt her.  
Ophelia hissed as Jules finished pulling the shirt off.

“I’m sorry,” said Jules, seeing Ophelia’s pained expression.

“Don’t be, it’s fine.” Ophelia swallowed and lifted her head to see the cut. She looked up at Jules then, who was staring at her stomach and not moving.

“It looks worse than it is, Jules.”

“Well it looks really bad,” said Jules, not looking away. “I wish you’d called me,” she whispered. She ripped open an antiseptic wipe and started dabbing lightly around the wound.

Ophelia lay back and stayed silent. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, but opened them when she heard Jules sniff. Ophelia lifted her head again to look at her. Jules raised a hand to wipe a tear off her face but stopped halfway to look at the blood on her fingers for a moment, before wiping her face with her wrist.

“Jules…” said Ophelia quietly, sitting up on her elbows. Jules looked at her and wiped her face again quickly.

“Lie back down or you’ll bleed again,” she said.

“Jules, it’s not that bad. It’s fin-”

“Stop saying that! This isn’t fine. You’re bleeding out of your stomach.” Jules pressed a cotton pad with disinfectant against the cut.

Ophelia ignored the sharp pain that spread across her stomach. “Don’t be so dramatic, it’s not like I was stabbed.” After a second, she bit her bottom lip. Wrong thing to say.

Jules looked at into Ophelia’s eyes and blinked quickly. “You could have been! There was no one stopping him, Ophelia!” Jules’s eyes and cheeks were bright red. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. “I started this whole vigilante thing. You wouldn’t be involved in any of this if it weren’t for me. And now you’re my best friend and I just…I can’t even think about you getting really hurt, or…or if you…” Jules closed her mouth, looked away and went back Ophelia’s injury. “Now you’re bleeding and you wouldn’t be bleeding if I had been there to watch your back.”

Ophelia waited until Jules had finished applying a bandage to the cut before she reached out and gripped her hand. Jules stared at their hands.

“Look, I can’t promise that nothing bad is ever going to happen, Jules. But if something happens to me it will never be your fault. I chose this. Remember, you tried to stop all of this after Carter, and I pretty much forced you to keep going.” Ophelia paused, waiting for Jules to look at her, which she did, this time with fresh tears sliding down her face. “This is not your fault,” Ophelia said sincerely.

  
She sat up and reached out for Jules. Jules scooted over and Ophelia pulled her in and held her tightly. “And I promise next time I need you, I will call,” said Ophelia, as Jules pulled away.

“You better,” said Jules, wiping under her eyes. “Ugh, I have to wash my hands,” she pulled a face as she gathered up all the bandages and wipes from the bed. “Lie down,” she told Ophelia before she walked away to the kitchen.

Ophelia obeyed. After a few minutes a thought occurred to her. “Did you get your essay done?” she called out to Jules.

“I actually only came over for you to proof read it,” Jules called back.

“Bring it over!”

“Seriously?”

“Yes! I want to read it.”

Jules came back with her laptop, which she placed on Ophelia’s chest before she lay down next to her. She lay on her side with her head rested on her hand, propped up by her elbow, and watched Ophelia read.

Ophelia’s eyebrows were scrunched together in concentration. She was quiet until suddenly she said “May I suggest a pun?”

Jules stared at her for a couple of seconds. “No.”

Ophelia went back to reading.

Jules finally caved, “Okay what was it?”

Ophelia threw her head back smiling, “Yes! Okay so here you wrote..”

Jules watched, grinning, as Ophelia launched into a list of several puns she had thought of for a single sentence, and she silently thanked the universe for bringing Ophelia, her best friend, her partner in crime, into her life.


End file.
